PlayStation Network down, status shocks gamers

If you have recently tried to sign into the PlayStation Network, you may be in for a shock as we can confirm that Sony has once again taken the PlayStation Network down for what appears to be scheduled maintenance.

The surprising thing about this, is the fact that Sony didn’t tell anyone that the PlayStation Network would be going offline today, although after a little digging we’ve discovered that the outage may only last an hour or so, which explains why Sony failed to inform users of possible downtime.

For the average PlayStation user trying to sign into the network, that error message popping up on screen may have brought back painful memories of Sony’s recent downtime as a result of planned attacks against the company which resulted in the network being down for a month across all regions.

Thankfully though, it looks like there’s no sign of any fraudulent activity and this is just one of Sony’s regular maintenance updates for the network. If the PlayStation Network is still down for you at the moment, it’s best to try again in an hour or so and see if it comes back online.

On a side note, we informed you yesterday that Sony may be planning to introduce a redesigned PlayStation Network for users which would be more image-based rather than the current XMB text format that we’re currently used to seeing at the moment. Based on early feedback though, it looks like many of you would prefer Sony to keep the XMB format rather than make drastic changes, which is interesting.

If you have multiple PlayStation Network accounts, you’ll also be aware that Sony has only just switched on full operation of the PlayStation Network online again in Japan as well, which is pretty amazing since the US and Europe have had access to PSN and the PlayStation Store for weeks now – better late than never though.

How many of you forgot to activate your free 30-day PSN+ subscription packages as part of Sony’s Welcome Back offer? You may be worrying right now that you don’t have time to do it since the PSN is down, but once it’s back up in a short while you’ll still be able to enjoy the full benefits of PSN+ as part of the 30 days deal, although the offer of two free PS3 games and two PSP games has expired now as far as we’re aware.

It shouldn’t be long until the PlayStation Network is back up, and we’ll let you know if there’s any major changes once it is online again. Are you waiting for PSN to come online again in your area – is it still down for you?

UPDATE: Good news, it looks like the downtime didn’t last long as the PlayStation Network is now back up and running fine. Have you noticed any changes since it’s been back up?